Iberseries Takes: Woody Allen, Los Javis and HBO Max and More

When the going gets tough, the tough get going to places like Iberseries & Platino Industria. Its 6th edition, also a pre-Mipcom warm-up, ran over Sept.29-Oct. 2 at Madrid’s Matadero, its rehabilitated orange-red brick former slaughterhouse.

That setting seems appropriate. There’s little evidence that Ampere Analysis’ maxim, coined a couple of years ago – a contracting sector chasing a 75% of peak TV business – has not changed.

Some parts of the TV business have hardly altered at all, such as its dependence on great writing, Steve Matthews, Banijay head of scripted, creative, said at an Iberseries company Spotlight.

Yet most companies, from Super Indies and network giants to small former auteur producers are pushing into AI, if only for backroom operations, and microdramas to push back against spiralling costs and diminishing revenues, sustaining cash-flow and not losing out on new growth opportunities.

That in turn is driving new mindsets. Making microdramas has made Argentinean producer Lorena Quevedo think of how long certain proceses take in cinema and series. “Suddenly a series we thought had an impossible budget we took up again saying: ‘If we made this microdrama, we cannot not make this series.’”

Needful of such insights, delegates broke attendance records up a massive 20% to 3,400 including day passes.

Iberseries & Platino Industria is organized by rights collection society EGEDA and Foundation Secuoya, in collaboration with producers’ assn. Fipca and sponsorship from Madrid Film Office and Film Madrid Region.

10 takeaways:

Woody Allen

The big star at Iberseries, or nearby at least in another part of Madrid, was the 90 year-old New Yorker. Starring an ensemble cast of Marton Csokas, Jemima Kirke Jakob Oftebro, Peter Vives and Alexi Wasser, the provisionally entitled Woody Allen Fall Project rolls Oct. 5 with WestEnd Films handling world sales. Small and debonair, Allen didn’t reveal so much about his upcoming film at an Oct. 1 press conference – he rarely does – though he teased it was a “comedy with romance, intrigue and infidelity.” He also said that Madrid – elegant and beautiful – was perfect for the “diplomatic atmosphere” he wanted for the film. The jury is out how the film will go. “It has to live up to my expectations. That doesn’t mean that it will, but I’ll do my best,” he said. Allen has however made pointed use of seeming postcard settings before, as in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” one of his most successful international shoots.

The JavisMubi and an HBO Max Coup

In one of the biggest news announcements at Iberseries, Mubi acquired global on drama series “La Mesías,” created by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi and sold by Movistar Plus International, which is to TV is what “La Bola Negra” is to cinema. In another, and a coup for HBO Max unveiled development on an enticing new crime series, to be exec produced by Los Javis at their Madrid manner Suma Content. The series is created by Fran Araújo, who co-penned Intl. Emmy-nominated “The Anatomy of the Moment,” and “Querer” co-scribe Eduard Sola, two of Spain’s most exciting writing talents. Most all talk about the Javis’ turns on “La Bola Negra.” They – and indeed HBO Max – are also rapidly creating ever more powerful creative hubs.

Erik Barmack on What He Got Wrong About AI, and What He Might Have Got Right, to the Horror of Some

Iberseries debated genre.The real horror story for many was AI. Just take the macro stats. Barmack delivered some stats. Revenues for just two U.S. AI companies, Anthropic and OpenAI, are projected to grow to an annual $700 million in the next couple of years, worth 13-15 times the value of Europe and Latin America’s entire media industries. AI is “much more disruptive” than sound, cable TV or streaming. And if “AI companies don’t continue to grow, the entire stock market will crash.” Barmack is a highly respected former Netflix international head. He’s also a recognised AI expert. Could he be wrong? To the relief of much of his producer audience, he did say he’s been wrong on one count. When Sora started, I was sort of convinced that it was over and that we’d be stuck on these loops of of watching 15-second generated clips targeted to your algorithm. That turned out to be wrong because it was too expensive, basically, to make these videos. And there wasn’t a big enough audience for what’s called AI slop.”

The Holy Grail: Original Crime and Cachou

Presented at Iberseries, the big new Movistar Plus-Arte series “Killing a Bear” is a murder mystery, where the victim is Cachou. A giant Pyrenean brown bear, his death in real life and on screen sparks a criminal investigation, as the event is recounted episode by episode by different characters in six radically warring versions. This originality builds as it feeds into a broader portrait lending historical depth of an ancient Spain battling environmentalists and E.U. regulation to preserve its way of life. Crime still pays, accounting for 27% of scripted TV orders and 24% of first-run scripted TV ordered globally, making it the single most commissioned TV genre, Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson tells Variety. But what operators and big indies want is original crime to cut through the crowd, one of the sector’s Holy Grails.

Banijay’s Secret

Mipcom’s conference will kick off with a Jeff Zucker-Marco Bassetti keynote, moderated by Variety co-Editor in Chief Cynthia Littelton, post the Banijay-All3Media $8 billion merger. What’s Banijay’s secret? One obviously is scalable franchises. Another is its network of 170 companies worldwide.

“All of these are based on creativity, based on talent, based on writing,” Steve Matthews, Banijay head of scripted, creative, said at an Iberseries Banijay Spotlight. Connecting with great talent, and giving them the trust and resources to make the titles they envision is indeed the key to some of the greatest production operations and producers in the world.

Microdramas Open Up

Inevitably, Iberseries hosted a vertical drama panel. “I’m from Team Melodrama,” said Argentinean producer Lorena Quevedo, a panelist, arguing the key was “romantic tension.” Her first microdrama – and indeed Argentina’s, – “Dinero, Armas y Feliz Navidad,” released on ReelShort in September 2025, hit 273 million views. Most microdramas are classic melodramas,. The format, however, is opening up in the Spanish-speaking world. Though its slate is primarily made up of vertical dramas, Telemundo Studios has begun to develop 20-episode 10-minute horizontal series, said Telemundo’s Clo Fernandez. 3Pas Studios has recently made a vertical musical, is considering a comedic microdrama, added Javier Williams. Quevedo has produced a vertical actioner.

One Direction Amazon MGM is Heading In International: Genre at Scale

An Amazon MGM Studios Spotlight was led by Javiera Balmaceda, head of international originals, Latin America, Canada and Australia, and Nicole Morganti, Prime Video head of international originals, Italy & Southern Europe. Both pointed to big action swings – Mexico’s “Venganza,” produced by El Estudio’s Pablo Cruz, and espionage actioner Zeta,” starring Mario Casas as one way to go. Both topped Prime Video Global Top 10 charts. Latin America’s challenge, Balmaceda noted is not necessarily a lack of talent, but a shortage of experience and opportunities to work at scale.

Spanish Cinema: Size Matters

Scale threaded various panels. Another Example

Spain made 423 feature films in 2025, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory. In 2026, as Iberseries unspooled, only four movies can be described as box office hits: “Torrente for President” (€29.1 million: $32.8 million), “Tadeo and the Magic Lamp,” (€7.2 million) “Aida y vuelta” (€5.1 million), “La Bola Negra” (€14.9 million and counting fast) and The Beloved. All are high-end for Spain. Three are based on huge Spanish IP. Another stars Javier Bardem. “The future of Spanish cinema does not lie in making more films, but in getting more people to want to see them,” Atresmedia Cine MD Jaime de Ortiz de Artiñano said late August. That sentiment ran through multiple panels at Iberseries.

IPs: Their Power

Only 12-14% of new series premieres each year are based on existing IP but existing IP accounts for 40%-50% of the top 100 most in-demand series, Parrot Analytics Jaime Otero said at Iberseries. On average, titles based on IP has 2.3 times more demand than original titles. That rises to 2.9 times titles inspired by real events and 3 times for literary adaptations. Multiples companies are putting large faith in big IPs. At Iberseries, for example, Luis Fernandez, Telemundo president, drilled down at a keynote on its ways forward. One is live events. Another reaching out to YA auds. And another, a 2027 schedule which includes new seasons of “La Reina del Sur,” El Señor de los Cielos” and “Sin Senos No Hay Paraíso,” an awesome franchise trifecta.

Spanish-Language New Markets

Spanish-language series are successful because they have a captive audience of 600 million native Spanish speakers. Their growth, however, lies elsewhere, Parrot Analytics’ Jaime Otero suggested at Iberseries opening panel. The global demand for series from Spain, Portugal and Latin America series has increased 25% since late August 2024., driven by countries outside the region such as South Korea, up 245%, Japan and China, up 119% in two years, or in Scandinavia where it has doubled. Meanwhile demand in Latin America has edged up or down, according to the territory. Little wonder then that Spanish export and trade board ICEX held an event to boost Spanish talent in Shanghai this July.

And a Bake’s Dozen of Deals Announced by Variety at This Year’s Iberseries & Platino Industria:

*Movistar Plus International unveiled 33 new sales deals, led by Mubí taking the world on “La Mesias,” and to “Riot Police,” from “The Beloved” director Rodrigo Sorogoyen. International distribution deals were also led by ‘The Anatomy of a Moment,” “Querer,” “The New Years” and ‘The Nameless.’

*HBO Max announced that “La Bola Negra” writer-director-producers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi are set to exec produce an ambitious new HBO Max drama series created by Fran Araújo and Eduard Sola.

*Beta Film has unveiled broad international sales for “Rex – Vienna Calling,” the latest incarnation of the hugely popular three-decade-old “Rex – A Cop’s Best Friend” franchise, as production gets underway on a second season.

*Globoplay has greenlit an adaptation of Raphael Montes’ “Uma Mulher no Escuro,” from Banijay Entertainment’s A Fábrica Brazilian banner. The order was announced at an Iberseries Banijay Spotlight panel.

*‘Elite’ star Ester Expósito is circling ‘Stink Eye,’ an Iberseries Co-Production & Financing Forum Title.

* “The Good Girls” lead Ilse Salas is set to to star in Quijote Films’ “To Die on Your Feet” (“Morir de Pie”) another project pitched at Iberseries & Platino Industria Forum.

*”Sin Filtro’ producer JK Media is producing its first original microdramas shot in the U.S. for TelevisaUnivision’s ViXMicrO.

*Belgian royalty series “King of Hearts” has secured key VRT backing. The coming-of-age drama series is from Giles Coulier, whose company, De Wereldvrede, is behind such hits as 2019 series “War of the Worlds” and Prix Europa winner, “Albatros.”

*‘Plaza Catedral’ director Abner Benaim, Chile’s Daniela Vega and Alfredo Castro have boarded fiction series “School of the Americas.”

*France’s Halley Production has boarded thriller ‘Carro Seco,’ about a killer who targets unscrupulous Barcelona real estate speculators. Javier Polo directs the buzz project at Iberseries & Platino Industria’s Co-Production and Financing Forum.

*Chile’s Sanfic is set to screen late documentarian Antonio Caro’s swan song “Monguen” among nine Chilean pics in Competition.

*”Strawberry and Chocolate” star Jorge Perugorría and Brazil’s Thiago Lacerda lead Havana-Set “Hotel Nacional,” another Iberseries Forum project.